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The News - Novedades Editores - Mexico City
20 de diciembre de 1994
©1994: Suzanne Cane y Olvera

THOSE DISTANT NEIGHBORS:
NOT QUITE AS DISTANT AS THEY USED TO BE

Is it only my imagination, or does living out of the United States for a long time cloud one's vision? Is it possible that things can change as drastically as it seems?

I still lived in New York when I turned twenty-one. I remember the excitement of finally being able to quality for a driver's license. I remember how no one would ever have dreamt of driving without one. I remember how a learner's permit was de rigueur for the apprentice. Now, all these years later, I turn on the TV to reports of traffic accidents involving drivers who have had their licenses suspended or revoked or who never bothered to get one in the first place. Were the reports about Mexico City, I might not be surprised. Until recently, Mexicans had not taken the bureaucracy very seriously. What amazes me is that these reports are coming from the United States. The other evening, one news story dealt with people stealing no-parking signs to sidestep the parking problem - in an American city! Is it any wonder I'm confused?

I must confess that my sense of definition has been upset. In the "old days", life in Mexico was one way, and life in the United States was another. It was not a question of preferring one or the other. It was just the way things were. It took a while to accept this "other" way, but, eventually, one did. After much wear and tear on our nerves, many expatriate Americans finally decided that such manias were cultural quirks that made Mexico what it was, and we stopped wanting to change them. For many, the concept of driving without a license (although it was unlikely that they would actually do it) ceased to be a capital crime and even came to represent a kind of freedom, as the United States came to be seen as over-regimented for all its rules and regulations and licenses. To the chagrin of many, this freedom did not last, however. Mexico has changed.

There are many things that are developing a certain similarity about them. Have you compared the cars on the roads recently? Years ago, the difference was enormous, Mexican roads were dominated by jalopies, American roads by sleek new Buicks and Chryslers. That is no longer the case. Mexico has gotten rid of a lot of its jalopies, while the United States seems to have acquired more than a few. In Mexico, we are seeing more and more shiny, new American models while, in the States, many of the large, luxury cars have been replaced by compact Japanese versions. Makes and models may differ, but, otherwise, the gap between the two countries seems to have shrunk.

Attitudes have changed as well. A general cynicism seems to have grown in the United States that I do not remember from the old days. Americans almost never questioned what they read in the newspapers, while Mexicans almost never believed it. Today, a new Mexican newspaper may be favorably commented upon, while, in the United States, the media come under constant attack. There had always been a certain naïveté about Americans, a certain trust. For better or worse, the point is that it no longer seems to exist.

Taxes are a good example of the new American cynicism. Here in Mexico, there as never been a question of people's negative attitude towards the fisco. For example, have you ever been accused of being an idiot for paying your taxes willingly? I have. Americans always paid their taxes. It hurt, but they paid - and willingly because they knew it was for the greater good. Ironically, Mexicans have come to take their taxes more seriously (government audits have had something to do with that), while, in the States, people seem to be looking for more loopholes than ever. Back in the sixties, I never heard Americans talk about the dynamics and methodology of tax evasion. For a very long time, that seemed to be a concept reserved for Mexicans. No longer.

The Mexico-U.S. gap seems to be closing in some of the most everyday places. One TV report just the other day dealt with the verbal battle between street vendors who had been selling their wares from sidewalk stalls, and shop owners who had been complaining that they were losing business to their tianguis competitors. The problem was solved by moving the street vendors to a marketplace set aside especially for them. The vendors, however, were not satisfied. They complained that they would not be able to do the same business in an isolated marketplace as on their old sidewalks. If you live in Mexico city, this is nothing new. We have been hearing it for years. The funny thing, though, is that this latest chapter comes not from the street vendors of Cinco de May in the historic downtown area of Mexico City, but from their counterparts on 125th Street - in New York!

During such events as the World Cup, when Mexican sports announcers tell us - very a la gringa - the statistical differences in time between one goal and the next, between one soccer game and the next - and, we open the refrigerator during half-time to the sight of the bag of Sara Lee bagels sitting on the top of the Tia Rosa flour tortillas - and Luis Miguel is singing a duet with Frank Sinatra - how can we not begin to think that Alan Riding's distant neighbors are no longer quite as distant as they used to be?